Friday, 17 March 2017

THE EYES OF MY MOTHER: LONDON FILM FESTIVAL HORROR HIT GOES ON RELEASE

The setting is
somewhere between bucolic and bleak: an isolated farm somewhere in
America. It's the 1960s, at least judging by the car and the
television. Young Francisca is following her mother, who was an eye
surgeon in her native Portugal; life on the farm, with her taciturn
father working and watching TV, seems to have little besides her
mother's spark, to charm her. But she seems happy. 'Loneliness can do
strange things to the mind,' her mother tells her, which might seem
to encapsulate the whole story, except it's really the easy way out.
Then a stranger appears, and in a few moments of violence,
Francisca's world is turned inside out.

The Eyes Of My
Mother, which was the best of a strong selection of horror films
at the London Film Festival last October and is released 24 March, is
first-time writer/director Nicholas Pesce's calm but chilling,
detailed but mysterious tale of that turning. The stranger fits the
setting perfectly, as played by Will Brill he's the personification
of the 60s/70s hippie gone bad antagonist, Andy Robinson stepped out of Dirty Harry. He's kept alive after his
horrific attack on the mother, but he would rather not be. 'Why would
I kill you?' young Francisca asks. 'You're my only friend'.

Part I of the film
is titled 'Mother'. Part II is 'Father', in which Francisca is now
grown. Part III is 'Family'. The setting doesn't change, only the
nature of her family does. The passing of time is indicated only a
few times, most notably when Francisca does to a tavern and brings a
woman home. We realise that it is an internal world of her
construction, but we aren't privy to all the details. We wonder how
many other victims there might have been, that we haven't seen. We
don't understand what brought her mother there in the first place,
but we see some reason why she remains so attached her to dour
father. And as we understand the nature of her own world, we are
almost drawn to sympathise with her while wondering exactly what her
motivation is. Are her actions the result of loneliness? Or would the
horror have been inevitable? We are drawn to seek the answers because
we are drawn to Francisca, despite the abominations.

This is in no small
part due to the performance by Portugese dancer Kika Magalhaes as
Francisca (and a young too to Olivia Bond, who is touching as the
young Francisca. Magalhaes is both fragile, but dynamic: expressions
and movements making up for the lack of dialogue; who else is there,
after all, for her to talk with? She commands the screen; she draws
you into her own world, and it is an uncomfortable drawing in. The
bits of actual horror, visceral and cruel, are for the most part
offstage, and they come as relief from her own inner turmoil. When we
watch Francisca cleaning up the aftermaths is when the real horror
sets in.

The balletic nature
of her performance, the quiet, and the beautifully composed scenes,
shot in stunning black and white by Zach Kuperstein, reminded me Guy
Maddin's silent work, as did the score, in which Ariel Loh's
synthesised horror is entwined with classic fado.

The more obvious
influence, however, would be our image of the world of Ed Gein, most
notably as seen in Psycho, but
drawing as well on documentaries about him and even Wisconsin
Death Trip, and even the feature
film Ed Gein.
Think back to the delicacy of Anthony Perkins in Psycho, and
you'll see moments of it in Magalhaes' approach. And take almost any
scene-setting shot and you'll see that same bleak and horrific
America just off the beaten path, just under that small-town surface.
The dreamy child-like quality of the narration speaks of Night Of
The Hunter. There are elements of The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre, out of which Will Brill might have stepped. And right
from the opening sequence I was reminded of Spirit Of The Beehive.

There are some who
will find this film exceedingly arty, too full of reference, too
reticent in its gore and perhaps with some justification, too sudden
and standard in its finale. It sometimes draws too much on its tropes: 'don't open that barn door'. But it is gripping, engrossing, and
captivating: it draws you in the way a great horror film should, with
perhaps misplaced sympathy. It is a hugely impressive debut by Pesce,
and a performance worthy of wider attention from Magalhaes. Don't
miss it.

THE EYES OF MY
MOTHER (USA 2016)

written and
directed by Nicholas Pesce

starring Kika
Magalhaes

released in UK
cinemas 24 March

Note: this review will also appear in Crime Time (www.crimetime.co.uk)